The Problem with Socks
by RebelWolf
Summary: An ellaboration of the "sock incident" seen in the manga. Yugi's playing a new game, but will he be allowed to play in peace?!


Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh or its characters.

Author's Note: This is a short little fic based off of an incident from the manga. I'm unsure if Yugi knew a whole lot about Yami during the "sock incident", but for my fic's purpose, I'm gonna say he did. I've also added the twist that Yami has the ability to assume a solid physical form of sorts. If you haven't seen the "sock incident" in the manga, Yugi spreads out every single sock he owns onto his bedroom floor. He's playing a sort of "concentration" or "memory" game with them, trying to pair them up. Yugi's mom walks in on him and yells at him for such a strange game with his clean socks. She baps him and proceeds to tell him that he needs to focus more on his grades in school rather than little games with socks.

This is a short little one chapter fic of a 'filler' I thought I'd throw into the little sock situation and a little 'brotherly' interaction between Yugi and Yami.

**The Problem with Socks**

"Let's see, this one goes with...no, not that one, maybe this one?" Yugi talked to himself as he looked at the myriad of clean socks he'd strewn about his bedroom floor. The pharaoh, residing within the Puzzle, could not refrain from interrupting.

//Aibou?//

"Oh, hi Yami, you awake?"

//What are you doing?//

"Playing a game of memory with my socks."

//Why?//

Yugi couldn't really answer him. He wasn't sure why. He was bored? Needed to play a game or a challenge?

//This is weird Yugi. Your mother spent energy washing and cleaning those for you. And you have placed them all over this floor.//

"So?"

//Why not Duel Monsters cards? We have doubles of many cards.//

Leave it to the pharaoh to remember that.

"Because I thought of socks first!" Yugi replied, his voice raising with a hitch of annoyed anger.

From within the puzzle, Yami chuckled. Sharing moments such as this with his 'partner' were something he enjoyed. He felt as though he and Yugi were brothers. It kept both from feeling any sense of lonliness.

//But many of these socks are the same Yugi. They come in packages of six do they not?//

Leave it to the pharaoh to be THAT practical.

"Yami, you're taking all the fun out of my game."

//Not much of a game if you ask me.// The pharaoh muttered.

"I HEARD THAT! And, I didn't ask you."

//Why not get to the REAL cause of your weirdness?//

"My what!?"

//I reside near your heart Yugi and not too far from _other_ places. Why don't we discuss the subject that you keep trying to supress by coming up with such strange games?//

"What's that?"

//Not what, but rather _who._//

"I'm not following you Yami."

//Sure you are, you are just trying to deny it. But fine then, I will make it easier for you...shall we call the subject, Tea?//

Yugi dropped the couple of socks he had just picked up.

//Ah, I see you DO know what I'm referring to.//

" Do we havta talk about Tea?" Yugi whined. He wasn't completely sure _what_ he felt when it came to one of his best friends. All he knew is it was something different than what he felt with his other best friends.

//Yes.// Yami replied with regal strength. 

"Well, if you put it like that." Yugi sighed.

//If you're too uncomfortable discussing Tea, perhaps we should discuss your school work?//

"NO, NOT THAT!"

//So, I guess, it is Tea then.//

"I hate it when you give me options, but I never really had an option." Yugi replied as he stood and took a seat at the end of his bed. He lifted the puzzle and chain over his head and set it beside him on the bed. It allowed Yami to reveal himself so Yugi could 'see' him in a more physical sense.

When Yami appeared, he couldn't help but look over the field of socks Yugi had made on the floor. "Maybe we should pick these up first Yugi."

"Why?"

"If your mother sees this..." Yami trailed.

"You worry too much Yami."

"Fine then." Yami remarked as he seated himself at Yugi's desk. He couldn't help but notice a piece of paper that sat upon Yugi's desk. It was his latest test. Yami grimaced. The grade upon it seemed rather low if it was out of a scale he thought it was. "You sure you do not wish to discuss school aibou?"

"What would an ancient pharaoh know about modern education?"

"Enough. While I don't recall details, I do know I was schooled."

"No, I do not wish to discuss school. Are YOU sure you want to discuss Tea? Because if I didn't know better, I'd swear you were stalling."

Yami's eyes flared open for a moment, as if in surprise. But he quickly recomposed himself. "Back to Tea then. Hmm, how should this begin? I suppose the basics. You care for her right?"

"She's my friend Yami. Of course I do."

"Your feelings stretch beyond friendship though. Am I correct?"

"Maybe. I don't know. I try to avoid pondering this issue."

"Obviously. Well, I see we're back to square one. Allow me to rephrase. You have a 'crush' on her no?" Yami asked as he tried to find the correct modern slang terms so that Yugi fully understood his meanings.

"Crush? Maybe. She's been the only girl who really bothers to talk or hang out with me."

"So you're saying you have no references to compare. Hmm, would you kiss her if given the chance?" Yami asked slyly. Yugi's brain wasn't getting him anywhere, but perhaps if he talked to Yugi's other brain...it may not reveal love, but it may show a little lust. It would be a start.

"Of course. But she'd have to want to kiss me too."

Yugi was smart and sharp when he wanted to be. Yami had to give him that. With a devillish smirk, Yami had to go farther. " Do you long to see Tea nude, like in a shower?"

Yugi blushed. He couldn't believe he was talking to a dead king about such matters! Still, Yugi knew Yami as well as he knew himself. Yami had virtually no memories of his past...only those of the time he has spent with Yugi. "And you wouldn't?" Yugi countered...he wanted to know where Yami stood with Tea as well.

"It matters not what I think."

"Yes it does."

"Why?"

"Because inquiring minds wanna know." Yugi replied, repeating a line he heard from some American tabloid. The ancient ruler was on the defensive now. Yugi could toy with him just the same.

"I'm a male too Yugi."

"Then you likely know my answer without me giving it." Yugi replied smugly as he twirled a sock.

"Well put aibou. Again you place me at square one. I'm beginning to wonder which one of us is the true master of games."

Yugi pointed to himself. Yami laughed and forgot he had the chair he was sitting on, balancing on its two back legs. He kicked it outward while laughing and the chair gave way, lunging backward and plopping the pharaoh onto the floor, back first.It was quite a compromising position for such a dignified ancient ruler.

Yugi laughed. "You know, my mother usually yells at me when I do that with chairs. Now I know why."

Yami grabbed a wad of socks and flung them at Yugi. They didn't reach their target. Socks don't fly well. Yugi laughed even harder. It didn't take Yami long to figure out the aerodynamics of socks. He rolled a couple into a ball. The ball bopped Yugi square between the eyes. He stopped laughing as the pharaoh began.

"That wasn't nice Yami." Yugi replied as he noticed the sock ball had landed in his lap. He picked it up and threw it back at the floor bound pharaoh. But Yami's reflexes and athletic abilities were much better than Yugi's. He caught the wad just before it reached his face. "This is why you should also work on your physical education Yugi."

"I thought we were talking about Tea, NOT school."

Yami rolled his eyes, though they flickered with amusement. "Fine, Tea it is."

Yugi readied himself and became serious for more of his 'psychiatric' evualuation by the pharaoh. The scene was too comical for the once ruler. Just as he was trying to lift himself off the floor, he had to start laughing again. His rear end met the floor once again.

"I think you've fallen and you can't get up." Yugi said as he too began to laugh once again.

Yami cringed at Yugi's cheesy line. He might not be of the modern world, but already, he was learning cliches. As he reoriented himself and propped his hands onto the floors, Yami's left hand felt something other than a sock. He picked it up and looked at it. It was something that fell out of one of Yugi's desk drawers during his fall.

"Ramses?" Yami read on the package, the name very obviously Egyptian.

Yugi's face donned a crimson blush. "Uh, yeah, it's nothing Yami. Give it here please." Yugi rattled quickly as he tried to grab the package from his bewildered other half. Yami's reflexes prevailed again. He positioned the package tightly within a bound fist. Yugi gave up quickly and allowed the young pharaoh to study it further.

"What is this Yugi?"

"It's a contraceptive."

"A what?"

Yugi moaned slightly. Was he really going to have to give a safe sex lecture to the spirit of a long dead ruler? "It's birth control of sorts."

"But you're male. You can't have children."

"It's not for me. It's a preventative for a girl I'm with."

Yami raised a brow. Was Yugi talking sex? Had they just stumbled on the opening he was seeking!? "Like Tea right? You'd like to be with Tea correct?"

Yugi face flushed with heated embarrassment. "Maybe." he replied shyly as he backed towards the security of his own bed, giving distance between him and the inquisitive ruler.

Yami looked at the contents in the package. It didn't take him long to envision what it would look like if it were unrolled. Sometimes Yugi was thankful for the pharaoh's intelligence. This was one thing he may not have to explain to him.

"Ramses eh?" Yami replied smugly almost as if coming to a conclusion that the device within the package could prove some use to himself.

"Oh, there are also Trojans and LifeStyles and...hey, wait! What are YOUR intentions with it Yami?"

Yami snapped out of his brief stupor to face his other half. "No intentions. Just thinking of other possible uses of a device such as this."

"Like what?"

"Like stuffing the face of a Blue Eyes White Dragon in one of these things. That'd shut Kaiba up."

Yugi could envision a massive, powerful Blue Eyes take form and as it reared its head to roar, a large rubber stuffed its face shut. It was comical. So the pharaoh did have a sense of humor at times. "Yeah, that probably would. Though he'd vow revenge for disgracing his precious Blue Eyes."

"Can you get more of these things?" Yami asked.

"What? Do you know how hard it is for a kid like me to get one of those!?"

"Okay then, can Joey or Tristan get more of these?"

"HEY!"

"Well, one of them likely gave you this one, correct?"

"Well, maybe, but that's not the point Yami!"

"I guess it's not. Anyway, I suppose I can acquire the items on my own anyway."

"Not with my body."

"Yes, with your body."

Yugi launched himself at the pharaoh, who dissapated into spirit form just as Yugi was to land upon him.

"HEY! That's not fair Yami!"

But there was no reply from the ancient ruler. Yugi gruffed in disgust then sat indian style back onto the floor. If Yami was going to disappear, then he'd simply ignore him too. Yugi returned to his game of Memory socks.

Suddenly his door opened. It was his mother! No wonder Yami had disappeared.

"Yugi, what are you doing!?"

"Uh, heheh, playing a game."

"Your socks! They're all over the floor!"

"Yeah, about that, well..."

_And thus continues the manga..._


End file.
